


Mother

by shadowolfhunter



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Justified
Genre: F/M, Human Trafficking, Justified Dark AU, M/M, Mentions of incest, Mentions of past underage sex, PTSD, Prostitution, Raylan never became a Marshal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-10 19:08:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2036610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowolfhunter/pseuds/shadowolfhunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve McGarrett is still uncertain about his mother and her role in everything that seems to go wrong in his life. Danny Williams still worries about his mother and whether or not his parents' marriage is going to fall apart. When Five-0 pull down a case of human trafficking and prostitution they never believed it could be the end of everything. As Steve and Danny and the team fight to close the case, save Five-0 and their futures, their new colleague holds the key to the traffickers' downfall. Steve and Danny learn a whole new meaning to terror, and come to understand their mother issues much more clearly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Calm Before the Storm

“… and the new hire?” Denning eyed his Task Force Chief carefully.

“Just fine. A bit reserved, but he fits in well with the rest of the team.” Steve McGarrett narrowed his eyes a little. The too casual tone of the Governor’s voice goosed some nerves.

“Gutterson’s a good man, decorated Army Ranger Sniper, decorated US Marshal, he’s an asset.”

“I didn’t say that he wasn’t.”

Denning wondered whether he should take the chance, but Tim had begged him not to, even though he had no doubt that revealing at least some of Tim and his husband’s story would go a long way to helping them get through it.

Since it wasn’t just about Tim, but his husband Ray too, Denning agreed to keep quiet and let things take their natural course. 

The least he could do for the man who saved his brother’s life.

Denning sighed and wrapped up the meeting.

***H*50***

Tim Gutterson checked the Barrett one more time, then packed it away. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his team, he did, but introducing them to Ray was going to be problematic. There was going to be a time when he was going to have to explain some of it, but until then, he was going to maintain a low profile, friendly but not too friendly.

Settle them into their new life, and help Ray to heal.

Tim closed his eyes. If only Ray wasn’t so damn fragile. The last round of testimony had broken him so very badly. Tim really hated that to make their case he had to subject his lover to the horrors of the trial, even giving televised testimony was too much. Barely out of the hospital, Ray had struggled to cope.

Seeing Crowder in the foyer afterwards had triggered Ray’s complete emotional collapse. He refused to leave the house again after that. So Tim had set the wheels in motion, called in a card he had hoped he would never have to, the brother of the Governor of Hawai’i.

Which turned out to be the right move. Denning was sympathetic to the husbands’ situation, and Tim had a job he could walk into. It wasn’t the Marshals’ office, but the Governor’s task force. Five-0.

So Tim had gone home, packed them both up. It didn’t take long. Just a few boxes of books and their clothes. Put a call into Ray’s doctor, planned out a strategy to get Ray out of the house and onto a plane.  
They’d been in Hawai’i for six weeks. Tim had his work, and Ray was beginning to be able to leave the house on his own.

So Tim was still doing the tricky little dance where he admitted that he was married, to a man, and somehow managing to stave off the endless questions and rainchecking the invites.

***H*50***

Kono studied their new teammate. There was something about the new guy, he was nice and polite and friendly, but there was a reserve there that she sensed was not part of his normal make-up. Something was holding him back.

At first she thought it might be because he was gay, and somehow he was expecting the team to turn on him. Then she realized that he was protecting something or someone. She wished that she could break through, tell him it was okay and whatever it was they would all face it together.

She liked Tim and he was an honest to god Army Ranger Sniper, he could teach her things and when he forgot to be wary, he was smart, caring and funny.

He picked up the rifle, gave Kono a nod, “locker room.” She waved a hand.

Kono sighed, it had been a slow week already. Chin was deeply into some cold case that HPD had slid out from under, Danny and Steve were out on a coffee run, trying like hell to pretend that this was just another day. Grover was around somewhere. And she was dying here.

She rubbed her hands over her face, heard the creak of a door and looked up.

“Tim Gutterson?” He said. He was tall and lean, willowy, long shiny red-brown hair with a dusting of grey just swept his shoulders, intense dark eyes watched her carefully, but his expression remained neutral.

Except for the strange scar on his left cheek, he was quite the most beautiful man she had ever seen. High cheek bones, the perfection of his face matched by the body of a catwalk model, skinny jeans and a Henley shirt with the sleeves pushed up outlining that perfectly. She didn’t have much experience with accents, just knew his wasn’t one she had heard before, and it was reminiscent of Tim’s laid-back drawl.

And he was standing here in front of her. A mixture of hope and something she found hard to define on his face. It took a second before she put the man to the photograph that Tim kept hidden in his drawer.

She smiled encouragingly, and he looked a little less anxious. “He’s just putting something away, he’ll be back in a minute. Won’t you come in?” Coaxing gently, because she had the strangest feeling he was poised on the edge of flight.

“I’m Kono.”

The dark eyes were still a little anxious, but he offered a tentative smile. “Ray.”

She was about to offer him something to drink while he waited, but right then the doors swung open and the rest of her team came barreling through, Steve and Danny arguing as always.

Ray’s eyes went wide, bright with sheer terror. He looked rooted to the spot, as the team realized they had a stranger in their midst, the doors swung one final time as Tim pushed through.

“Ray.” Tim’s voice was low and calm, as Steve said, “Tim, who’s your friend.” Kono had a second to consider that Steve’s voice was really loud in the enclosed space, when she noticed the snatch in Ray’s breathing, her hand was on his arm. He was shivering, and Tim surged forward, wrapping his arms around Ray’s body.

“Hey.”

Ray’s arms clamped tight around Tim, and he buried his face in Tim’s neck. Instead of evening out, his breathing seemed to become more erratic. 

“Shit.” Said Tim, it was barely above a whisper, but Danny moved swiftly, dumping the contents of the paper bag on Chin’s beloved computer table, and handing the bag off to Tim, as the young sniper steered his companion’s faltering steps towards his office and the couch in it.

McGarrett looked puzzled, Chin was bemoaning the sugar on the computer table and Grover spoke for all of them. “Who’s that?” Quietly, because one thing was certain, all of the team at once, talking loudly had triggered something in the man that Tim was currently tending to in his office.

“His name’s Ray, I think that’s Tim’s husband.” Kono said.

Steve took a step towards Tim’s office, but Danny laid a hand on his arm. “Leave it babe,” he shook his head for emphasis “Whatever’s up with Tim, he’ll tell us what he needs us to know.”

Steve nodded, “okay”, he sensed the younger man was in some sort of trouble, and every instinct was to protect, but the presence of Tim’s husband altered things a bit. He thought back to the Governor’s office, and Denning’s interest in the sniper, something told him that the Governor knew a lot more than Five-0 did about their colleague.

***H*50***

It took an hour, and some heavy-duty avoidance by Steve and the others before Tim emerged from his office. “He’s asleep.” He said, to Steve’s enquiry.

“Look, I know I need to explain some things to you. I honestly thought I would have more time,” Tim looked tired and strained. “I can’t talk about any of it with Ray here. I need to get him home and settled first.” He looked up at Steve. “Tomorrow, boss?”

McGarrett nodded, “Tomorrow.”


	2. Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim comes clean to the team about his husband's origins... Steve realises yet again that his mother is telling lies... the team bonds...

Tim can sense the expectation. McGarrett has been casting suspicious glances at him from the moment he walked through the door, so Tim draws his thoughts together, mentally reviews the file he put together on the jump drive that’s currently burning a hole in his pocket.

Things that he would rather left unsaid, but they have to know, so that he can keep other things hidden. Ray’s not ready to handle any of the more sensitive information, so Tim’s carefully picked his way through things that need to be said and the nitty gritty of things that need to be left unsaid and hopes that he’s got the balance right.

He heads to the computer table and pulls the drive out of his pocket. “Gather round, I can only do this once,” he’s startled to hear his own voice, in shreds, cracked and dry and dusty and his entire team is looking at him with real concern for his well-being. Tim swallows because this just got harder, and hands the drive to Chin, who plugs it in.

“Before we came here, you need to know two things.” He starts carefully. “There’s was a case, and a task force, and I needed a CI.” The little voice in his head says that’s barely the half of it. He feels the weight of that, the concern that’s vibrating through each of the members of his team. “Ray was that CI.” Chin’s pulled the file open, and Tim puts his hand done on the file marked pictures, “and this is what they did to him when we were betrayed…” Betrayal really doesn’t do more than scratch the surface of what happened, but it will do for now. He flicks the pictures open.

Steve stares at the pictures, trying to match the image of the man he has from yesterday to these pictures of a broken beaten body whose horrific injuries are so graphically displayed. He listens to the tightness in the dispassionate voice that Tim’s using to describe how his husband took such risks for Tim, and the depths of their love ever since.

Tim looks around the table, Kono with tears in her eyes, for all that she’s a toughie, the young woman is a gentle soul; Danny and Steve, wide-eyed with shock, Chin… Tim can barely contain his pain at the sorrowful sympathy on the Asian detective’s face, and Grover, big and stoic but rocked to his core. Tim takes the calculated gamble that could end everything right here and now. He hopes it doesn’t because he’s starting to care deeply for these people, and Ray is starting to heal. The panic attack was a minor setback compared to what he had achieved simply by coming to Tim’s place of work.

“One more thing you need to know now. Ray was a prostitute.”

This revelation rocks them, he can see that, but he can see that each and every one of his colleagues might not fully understand the whole picture (and believe it, he really doesn’t want them to have to know that), but they are solidly behind him and the man he loves.

It’s hard, Steve McGarrett doesn’t really do social human interaction terribly well. He knows that, and everything he wants to express is probably the wrong thing, but he puts a gentle hand on Tim Gutterson’s shoulder as he tries to get his thoughts in some sort of order.

“Anything you need.” It sounds kinda vague, just a simple statement, but Tim picks up the sentiment behind the slightly gruff tone.

He nods. Words would not be good right now, he’s not sure he can force them past the uncommonly large boulder that’s taken up residence in the back of his throat. A vision of the slightly sheepish look on Ray’s face when he calmed sufficiently to fall asleep on Tim’s couch in the office popped into his head. Ray was going to try so hard, push himself probably beyond the point that he should really try and go, because he loves his husband and really wants to be well for Tim. This is what just breaks Tim in two. 

Coming to Hawai’i, the Governor’s support, Tim finding himself on the elite team of the Governor’s task force. Even in the six weeks since they left the Eastern States, somehow Ray is fighting back. For the first time since their wedding in Connecticut, Tim has some confidence that Ray will be among friends.

***H*50***

Steve has done everything to give his mother the benefit of the doubt. Things just keep happening that he can’t ignore. The sinking feeling he has tells him he’s being lied to again.

Worse, he knows he can no longer turn to Cath. Joe’s a bust… Steve’s feeling on the edge of a precipice, because everyone he thought he should be able to trust has been lying to him.

Except Danny.

Steve draws in a sharp breath. Dammit. He knows his partner would do anything for him, but the reality is that this time, he’s pretty certain there is nothing Danny can do to help.

***H*50***

It’s Sunday, it’s cook out on Steve’s beach, the team, and significant others. Danny and Grace, Chin and Kono supporting each other, Grover and his daughter Samantha, and Tim and Ray.

It’s taken weeks for Ray to be comfortable around them, and he’s still shy, though he’s taken to Grace. Steve’s pretty sure it’s because Ray draws things, and Grace loves to draw things and Ray lets Gracie use his pencils, and his paper too.

At first Danny is wary, after all the man was a prostitute. It doesn’t take long for the Jersey detective to see that Ray would never harm a child. It was the jellyfish that convinced him.

Grace’s shriek of fright, Ray, who was the closest, running into the water to scoop her up out of harm’s way, one small sting on her left leg, several more severe stings on Ray’s unprotected right arm as he swept her clear of the tentacles and strode back to shore, handing her to her horrified father. Then wounds were tended to and Steve assessed the injuries to Ray’s arm, while Grace flung her arms around Ray’s neck and Danny had a ringside seat to the raw emotion on Ray Gutterson’s face at Danny’s daughter’s gesture.

After that Ray almost seemed to cling to Grace. Steve and Danny figured it was mostly because Grace never judged him. As Ray relaxed, Tim became more open, and more embedded in the team.


	3. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny goes over everything in his head, as the team's case drags on with no end in sight.

Danny Williams does not trust Doris McGarrett. At all. Or Joe White. Between them they have done a serious number on Steve’s head.

So when Doris informs her son that she has no knowledge of this case that is dragging them down to the tenth level of hell. Danny Williams does not believe her.

The thing that is making Danny sick. Again. Is that Steve wants to. For what Doris McGarrett has done to her son when he was only a little boy, Danny really wants to lock her up and throw away the key.

For what she has done since her inexcusably triumphant return, Danny wouldn’t mind slipping in a wild and hungry tiger or two before he locks the door.

He gets the part where she believes she was saving her family, he really does. Because she believes it doesn’t make it so.

Doris hid, and John McGarrett threw his children away. The damage that these parents did to their children is almost incalculable. Danny’s seen Social Services cases that have done less.

The bit that burns the most is that despite the serious gaps in Steve’s ability to connect, mammal to mammal, some how Doris McGarrett’s son has wound up loving and loyal, a huge goofball who connects to people by accident.

And all Doris (the bitch) can do is burn her son’s love and loyalty at every turn.

Knowing just how badly Steve wants his mother to be that image from his childhood chokes Danny up. Steve McGarrett may be a big bad thirty-six year old Navy SEAL with multiple decorations, but deep inside there’s this scared child crying “Why?”

It’s days like this, where Doris spins her bullshit, and Steve just stands there, with a comical look on his face as though his guts have been kicked out, Danny really wants to kill her. He won’t even make it look like an accident.

Danny’s hand makes its way, entirely of its own volition, to the small of Steve’s back, it rests there, warm and heavy, and Steve’s back gently presses into the palm. They are so battered by this storm that words are unnecessary. This is a promise for later, when they go home, and Steve will curl into Danny’s arms, tears will probably go unshed, but there will be that hint of them and Danny’s arms will tighten as Steve burrows closer, wrapping around Danny like the emotional octopus that he is, and for a very few quiet hours they will let slip the shadows and just be Danny and Steve. 

But they are not there yet. Chin has been plowing carefully through all the information they have. Evidence is in short supply.

It’s not as though they haven’t been arresting people. And freeing terribly abused sex slaves. Both male and female. Yet somehow the top of the tree remains untouched.

Danny worries about Tim too. The case is taking a huge toll on the young Marshal. At first he thinks it’s just the usual human fall out, then he realizes that this whole thing reminds Tim of the case that made him. 

Danny knows a bit about The Givens Case. He’s read some of the file. The un-redacted bits. The case surrounded one Frances Givens, matriarch of the Givens and Crowder families, at the centre of a prostitution and drug ring that ran for over thirty years, and took down an economy when it finally collapsed.

They need a break in this case, but Danny’s reluctant to probe too much. He knows that Ray was the prostitute who gave Tim the vital details of the Givens’ empire. He’s seen the pictures of what was done to Ray, hell, he’s even seen the resulting scars. The nerve damage in Ray’s right arm which occasionally causes him to drop things. In Danny’s mind they have both been through enough, and it makes him a little sick that Tim’s now on another prostitution ring case, it doesn’t matter how irrational that is.

The Guttersons have been in Hawaii nearly a year now, and Ray is probably as good as he’s ever going to get. Tim’s saved both Danny and Steve’s lives several times with incredible sniper shots. Danny can’t help it, he loves both of them like he loves Chin and Kono, and hates to see them hurting.

And Tim is hurting. He hides it well, under his usual veil of cockiness and sarcasm, but Danny is well-versed in reading super-SEAL bs now, and Army Ranger bs is no different.

Sometimes it truly scares him when he looks up and sees Aneurysm face in stereo.

“Danny?”

Danny gives his partner a sideways glance. Steve has that expectant and slightly fond look which means that Danny tuned out and they are all staring at him.

Chin looks mildly exasperated, but that could just be tiredness.

“Sorry.” Danny pulls himself together and lets the detail of the plan just flow over him.

***H*50***

It’s going to hell in a handcart, Danny returns fire as their suspect makes a break for it, he and Kono bracket Steve, as the commander puts pressure on the wounds in Tim’s shoulder.

Danny shoots and covers them, as he tries to rationalize what just happened.

It’s all mostly a jumble as Tim gets hit and goes down, and Danny looks up and sees…

Ray. But not Ray. No scar, and younger somehow. More aggressive than Ray could ever be. But that beautiful face, the eyes so hard and cruel.

Jason.

The name that Tim muttered before he passed out.

There is shouting and confusion, and Danny takes a moment to process that the shooting is over, and they are running for the car to follow Tim to hospital, and how are they going to break it to Ray… and who the hell is Jason?


End file.
